Underrated Campus Additions

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by Joshua Boucher
The Lance – Opinion/Alternative Writer

There are a lot of new things happening this year on campus, however, many of these changes can get overlooked. Several different departments have introduced new programs that will be starting this semester, so here’s a breakdown of what’s happening where.

RESIDENCE

Returning residence students may be slightly confused if they take a gander at the Windsor Inter-Residence Council (WIRC) this year. Last year, residence students elected Gregory Vochin, a first-year HK student at the time, as the WIRC president for the 2017-2018 academic year. The president of WIRC, however, is actually Liessell Innes. April Fools!

No, but seriously, Innes is a second-year student this year and was elected as the WIRC Vice-President at the end of her first year. However, due to unforeseen events that transpired over the summer, Vochin had resigned from his presidency. To determine his replacement, there was a re-election process wherein a council of highly qualified residence students decided between two candidates after reading each of their letters of intent.

The process for determining this council went as follows: An email went out to every summer residence student asking for volunteers to join the committee. Six students said they’d do it.

And here we are!

There are still roles to be filled in the WIRC executive council, which normally has a President, Vice President, Director of Student Affairs, and Director of Events. The WIRC is currently undergoing the process to get their vacant slots filled, and the new members should hopefully be announced soon.

In other residence news: there’s a new Community Assistant in town. In fact, there are four new Community Assistants in town.

“A whomst?” you might ask.

Right, this is apparently underground information. Weird. Well, since you asked, a Community Assistant is like a Senior Resident Assistant. They operate on a level between the Resident Assistants and the Residence Life Coordinators (members of the Residence Life Management Team. Like, actual adults who aren’t students). The Community Assistants this year are full-time students who have previous Residence Life Staff experience.

Last year started with two Community Assistants: one in charge of RezEvents, and one in charge of Residence Desk Staff. But by the end of that year, there was only one CA (Desk Staff) left standing. There can only be one.

But for this year, the Residence Life Management Team decided to mix things up a bit. There are four CAs, each in charge of one of the following: RezEvents, large-scale programming and events, Blue and Gold Projects, and the RA – Academics.

“But wait!” you might say, “what about Desk Staff?”

Good eye! There was going to be a Residence Desk Services Coordinator in charge of Desk Staff this year, instead of a Community Assistant, but the person offered the position (me) turned it down last year so the responsibility to manage Desk Staff has fallen into the hands of one of the RLCs (Sorry, Joyceln).

So what does all this mean for residence students? Well, not a whole lot. The CA – Academic and CA – RezEvents positions have existed in previous years, so they aren’t all that new. And the CA – Large Scale Programming is new as a position on its own, but the responsibilities used to belong to RLCs working in conjunction with CAs (sometimes). The newest of the new is the CA – Blue and Gold Projects. This person is in charge of managing pregame activities for residence students, as well as Lancer Pride-themed projects like Lancer Loot.

This new position was created to address our school’s lack of school spirit. With programs in place to promote students engaging in Lancer Pride, like wearing blue and gold and attending more sporting games, the hope is that people will eventually be enthusiastically bragging about how they’re a Lancer. I’m sure we’re all holding our breath for that day to come.

SAFETY

There’s a new sexual assault resistance workshop in town, and it’s called Flip The Script. These workshops are now available for University of Windsor students and they are intended for university-aged women, including trans women. The name is new, but the curriculum is based on an older program that was designed by one of our university’s own professors, Dr. Charlene Senn.

A professor of both psychology and women’s and gender studies, Dr. Senn specializes in male violence against women as a research area. She applied her knowledge of the subject and created the Enhanced Assess Act Acknowledge (EAAA) curriculum that covers not just how to defend yourself, but also identifying risks of sexually coercive behaviour, barriers to safety, and expression of desires and boundaries.

There are three different workshop times available for registration right now, and they are each about 12 hours in total. Occurring either over a weekend or during weeknights, there is one workshop in each of the months of September, October, and November.

More information available at: www.uwindsor.ca/sexual-assault/FlipTheScript

SCIENCE

The Faculty of Science has introduced a new initiative entitled Preparation for Academic Success in Science (PASS). This initiative took place during Welcome Week, over a span of two days, and had students meet faculty, visit classes, and learn about research opportunities to help prepare them for their undergraduate science experience at the university.

Students partaking in PASS also had the opportunity to participate in mock lectures, learn how to take effective study notes, and even participated in sample tests. In addition to preparing them for the general demands of being a student, the science students also got an idea of what the student-faculty relationship is like at our school. It’s important to emphasize a healthy relationship between students and professors because our school’s relatively low student-faculty ratio is one of the main attractions to prospective students.